I just got done watching the CNN – YouTube Democratic Debate and was blown away at how well the format worked. I think there are a lot of things about current American Politics that would disappoint the Founding Fathers, but this format for the debate certainly wouldn’t be one of them. The format also harkens to shades of what Al Gore mentions in his book, The Assault on Reason, about the Internet restoring democracy in America. I am very much looking forward to the Republican Debate in September.
I don’t want to get too much into the politics of it because that could be like writing a book, but I will say that I thought Obama did the best in this debate. He came off as both a young and revitalizing JFK-style candidate and a fighter for the people Teddy Roosevelt-style candidate. I thought Mike Gravel performed admirably as the semi-crazy foil to the Democrats, but really I think Ron Paul has the semi-crazy foil award wrapped up in his role as that to the Republican party.
I am a bit bothered that the debate wasn’t on a major network. Perhaps the popularity of user generated content will push to make future debates on network TV rather than cable. I’m not holding my breath though.
I was kinda surprised that there were less than 3,000 videos posted online about the debates. A one in 3,000 chance of being able to ask a question to the Democratic Presidential Candidates and have it answered on national TV is pretty good. Plus, with the popularity of the format, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that there’s at least 30,000 videos submitted for the Republican Debates.
You can see the questions that were chosen here and you can see the other questions that were asked here. I also would like to see the entire debate posted online, and if I can find a link to it, I’ll add it here. I’m sure eventually those links will break, but they look like they will be good at least until the next presidential election.
Well, the new TV show on the Iraq war called “Over There” is going to be on tomorrow (well, tonight since I stay up too late). I’m not sure what to think about this. I haven’t really fallen into much of the hype, but it appears as if it’s very highly anticipated by a number of people. I suppose I’ll end up watching it tomorrow to see what I think.
That reminds me. I haven’t blogged about Battlestar Galactica yet. It’s actually something that I’ve sort of fallen in love with. I haven’t been this excited about a science fiction TV show since perhaps Star Trek: The Next Generation or The X Files. It’s near the beginning of season two now. I’d say more, but I’m exhausted and I still have a ton of things on my to-do list for the week.
It’s West Wing week on Bravo! They claim to be showing West Wing reruns all day and night, but they don’t have one one right now. Either way though, I’m hopeful for tomorrow since it seems like they are doing West Wing episodes all day long. This could mean that every lunch from here to the end of the week I’ll be able to run back and watch the West Wing!
The Pacers play tomorrow night (tonight) in Detroit. It’s a critical game 5. Last time we managed to win a game 5 on the road, but then we blew the game 6 clincher at home. I think it will be a lot harder to manage a game 7 road win in Detroit than it was against Boston. This means of course that game 5 is a very nearly a must win. (As if a game 4 at home to go up 3-1 wasn’t…) Anyhow, I’m actually considering skipping my Bible Study for the game. How bad is that? Will God smite the Pacers if I choose to watch the game?
So I got tickets for the last of the new Star Wars movies almost a month ago and it just happens to directly conflict with game 6 in the Pacers – Pistons series. I’m going to go for the “record the game and hope no one tells me the score” philosophy since I can’t very well pass up seeing the Star Wars movie on opening night. I also found out today that this Friday afternoon my group at work is going to be going to the movie as a team building exercise. Between all the television, sports and movies this week, I can honestly say that I’m gearing up to be very American by Memorial Day.
So the Pacers are up 2-1 in the first round versus Boston thanks in large part to, you guessed it, Reggie Miller. Game four is tonight in Indianapolis. I’d love to be going. It seems like a sure win since Antoine Walker was booted from the last game and suspended from this one. However, a lot of those “sure wins” end up losses if you forget that you still have to play. Still, it would be a pretty fun game to see.
So I couldn’t find the fifth season DVDs for the West Wing. I’m actually not sure where I remember reading that they would be out this past Tuesday, but it would have been really cool to find them. Anyhow, I guess Amazon.com is listing it as unreleased with no projected release date. I suppose it could be something that I just heard as a rumor somewhere.
Slashdot is running an article about World of Warcraft which is none too flattering, but I have to kinda agree. I haven’t really been playing as much as I used to, and even I can tell that there’s not enough content out there for the truly addicted MMORPGers. I used to play over 50 hours a week (while working full time) and I know that there’s some seriously dedicated players who are beyond bored with the current situation. Here’s to hoping that Blizzard can get it’s act together quickly.